Now, I hope for everyone who already booked their travel and accommodation that they get their money back somehow. But for those who a) won't get refunds, or b) wouldn't have to travel that far anyway, or c) are in the city anyway, would anybody be interested in meeting up on a smaller scale - like a pub, or a room in a pub, or a small conference venue?

PLEASE NOTE: The registration is ongoing at CODE KEN London 2011, For £ 199.00
The proposed venue has the advantage of being close to the original spot.
Fantastic work by Jon Dickinson.

There is also a chat room here on meta for those interested; we are using it to iron out the details, discuss availability and related stuff. Try not to get tangential.

We would really really like to be able to get this information to all the people who registered for the original event, so if you are reading this and you have any clout within SEIS, you might consider following up this request.

Per your edit, is it wise to post an answer each with times? or should one "attendance" answer be made with, say, name: [name], free: [dates]. That way we will know who is potentially interested and when.
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staticbeastSep 9 '11 at 11:20

8 Answers
8

I could potentially (no promises here) sort out an evening event hosted at the Google offices - whether that's as a series of lightning talks or something similar. We already host an "Open Source Jam" periodically.

Wow, sounds very interesting. How many people could this accommodate? Would it be possible to do on the evening of the 14th? - although maybe the evening of sunday 13th might be attractive too. (Most out-of-towners will probably have booked flights arriving sunday to be at Excel at 7:45 the next morning)
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PëkkaSep 8 '11 at 10:51

Doing anything on a Sunday night would be somewhat harder. No idea offhand whether it could be done on the 14th, but I can investigate. I doubt whether we could host a huge number of people - probably less than 100 - but it could still be useful. I'll ask colleagues for more information about what's available...
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Jon SkeetSep 8 '11 at 10:55

cool, thanks! Even 50 would sound more than ample for a community-organized event - at least to my inexperienced ears. I was thinking about sunday for those who would have to take time off to attend monday or tuesday, but sticking to the original planned dates is probably the best way to go.
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PëkkaSep 8 '11 at 10:57

btw, I could arrange to be available all day monday if any assistance were required preparing things.
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PëkkaSep 8 '11 at 11:03

I already got the tickets so I'll be around London, if any help is needed I will have time to give a hand
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jasalgueroSep 8 '11 at 15:44

I got the tickets too, so if I come, I'll be around for the duration. Don't know if I'd come just for Sunday evening though...
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BenjolSep 8 '11 at 17:43

1

I would certainly show! Probably one or two more persons with me as well. Available from Sunday evening up to and including Tuesday evening.
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Francis RathSep 12 '11 at 15:16

Hi Jon, any news on the "meetup at Google London" possibility? Or can I start to book my cctvenues room for Monday afternoon, 14th November? Then I will publish that as a meetup.com event, and will see who is willing to attend.
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VonCSep 13 '11 at 10:28

@VonC: I haven't looked into it yet - but if you do something in the afternoon, that wouldn't conflict with an evening event anyway.
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Jon SkeetSep 13 '11 at 10:36

would you give your speech for that afternoon at cctvenues?
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VonCSep 13 '11 at 10:37

Ok, I will mention you on the meetup.com even as "tentavite" ;)
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VonCSep 13 '11 at 10:39

2

I have created meetup.com/DevDays-London-2011-Plan-B for you and others to register. Even if the meetup ends up taking place in another location, that can at least give us an idea of the number of attendees still willing to come to a DevDays London.
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VonCSep 13 '11 at 18:32

We could easily have a pub based meet up, but if we have enough volunteer speakers and attendees, a day similar to DevDays '09 might be fun. Depending on the number of interested people, we can get some central conference facilities for not a whole lot of cash monies (just a quick Google gives a nicely located 50 person room for the day, with wifi, projector and coffee for about £14 a person).

We could call it the Stack Underflow DevDay. For when there's just not enough interest in the real deal.

Edit: So, I'd rather do a weekday evening than a weekend (but I could make a Sunday, I guess) - 13th, 14th and 15th November are fine for me. The key thing now is to work out how many people are interested in attending. Maybe some kind of poll with options like:

An all day event, like DevDays '09. 6 or 7 45 minute talks with 10 minutes for questions. Spilling into pubs afterwards. Probably costing around £20 a head without lunch.

That sounds great! I, for one, would be more than willing to sign up and send £14 (or whatever) beforehand if somebody can organize this locally, and I'm sure many others would be, too. I'm sure we could get some sponsoring from SE, Inc. as well.
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PëkkaSep 7 '11 at 19:31

1

Cost is not a big issue for me (assuming the refund from SE comes through!), but I don't think I'd come for anything other than option 1 or 2.
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BenjolSep 9 '11 at 8:22

Following on from VonC's initiative I've been in touch with VonC, Jon Skeet and the other presenters to see if they are available to continue with the original line up. So far we have confirmation from half of the presenters and we are working on the rest.

I am in talks with a sponsor that would help take the risk out of the venue hire.

Alison from Stack Exchange has agreed to publicise the event to the people that originally signed up to London Dev Days, once we get a program published. I'm hopeful that this will happen towards the end of next week.

That is great news! I have a good feeling about this. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.
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PëkkaSep 16 '11 at 15:59

Jon, thanks so much for saving my airfare and hotel booking! Please keep us posted on when the videos come online (I missed the concurrency talk), and for CodeKen2012 :) You may be interested in Pekka's question here.
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BenjolNov 18 '11 at 7:45

I will be in London next November 14th and 15th. I can be there for a Sunday evening event as well.
(I am the French correspondent of a London-based team, usually working in Paris France, but for that specific week, I have to work at their London office anyway)

@Benjol: no, divided by 80 to 90 people, once we will have advertised it on, for instance, meetup.com (plus SO can take part of it as a sponsorship, I suppose). Things "currently stands" only if we do nothing about it.
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VonCSep 9 '11 at 7:48

VonC, I did actually reply to the cancellation mail, requesting that Joel send out a mail to all the people who had signed up to London Devdays, pointing them to this question. I don't know if he'll get the mail though. I figure it's the least they can do. If you have any leverage, you might like to try too...
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BenjolSep 9 '11 at 8:05

2

@Benjol: excellent :) As the 8th user of ALL TIME on Stack Overflow, I have... err... nothing. No leverage at all ;) But I will email them as well.
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VonCSep 9 '11 at 8:07

1

VonC, in the current economic climate, it is reassuring to know that the market value of SO reputation is so high :)
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BenjolSep 9 '11 at 8:19

I need to be in London anyway some time this year, and I might as well stick to the original plan.

This is not a 100% commitment yet - I haven't any tickets booked at the moment. But I would be ready to commit if there's a decent turnout, a location settled on, and bookings in place.

Unfortunately, due to lack of local presence and knowledge, I'm unable to assist in finding a pub or other place to be at. All I can contribute is be there, either on the initially planned monday and tuesday, or one or two days prior, and the guarantee to pay my share of the costs.

I could make myself available to help with preparations sunday or monday.

I'm not sure if I'd commit to two (work) days, if it's just for an hour and a half in a pub (even though I'd love to meet you guys). But if I really can't get refunds, I might consider it.

Thanks for the thought anyway.

Attendance: I'll be in town from Sunday early evening, but my return trip is on Tuesday evening. I'm not sure if I can justify the two days off that my employer has given me for just a Sunday evening event.

Sorry to add to this thread rather than the chat room but there is a minimum reputation before you can post there. I am from London and would be interested in coming to an afternoon / all day event in that week if one could be arranged.

Great job guys! I was really bummed out when I heard this was cancelled.

Getting to London is fairly easy for me and I'd already blocked out the Monday and Tuesday in my diary. I was scheduled to speak about my research and would be more than happy to do so at any "Plan B" event, if people wanted me to.

My area of research is Sensory Substitution and I was planning on writing a talk that blended some neuroscience/psychology with some of the unique design/development problems that are inherent to the area.

If I was going to talk, would people want more of an oddball talk? Or more of a focus on serious programming?

Great, I would love to hear this one, the topic sounds fascinating! Re oddball vs. serious, if in doubt, I tend to go for the oddball :) Could you elaborate a bit more in which way the two extremes would differ?
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PëkkaSep 14 '11 at 11:45